The longer, more slender Asian varieties of eggplant have fewer seeds, more tender skins and a finer flavor.

Written by

Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck?s Kitchen

I love to cook Italian-inspired food. Part of that love comes from the fact that my hometown in Austria is only about 75 miles from the border with Italy. So I grew up familiar with Italian flavors. One of my favorite Italian ingredients has always been eggplant, or melanzana as they call the vegetable there.

Think even briefly about that nation's cooking, and a delicious range of dishes comes to mind, like baked eggplant stuffed with meat or sausage; the sweet-and-sour summer vegetable stew called caponata, and eggplant alla ...